Images: Celebrations in Philadelphia

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture / Photographs and Prints Division

ID# DS_02PORTP

Absalom Jones

Rev. Absalom Jones (1746-1818) purchased his freedom in 1784. With Richard Allen, he established the Free African Society -a mutual aid society- in Philadelphia in 1787. In 1816 he formed the African Methodist Episcopal Church and was the first African American formally ordained.